Dr Moira Cunningham

"It’s a delightfully easy place to bring up children. Gisborne has what the rest of New Zealand is struggling to get back: community and safety for children so they can have a bit more independence."

Dr Moira Cunningham trained in Scotland at Aberdeen University’s medical school, and graduated MBChB in 1984. She worked in Scotland for the next four years training in General Practice (MRCGP,DRCOG) then did a stint in Te Kuiti’s small hospital with her husband .

She returned to Scotland, began raising children and worked in Breast Cancer Screening in the nineties helping women in the early stages of their cancer journey. In 1997 they returned to New Zealand, and came to Gisborne because it was coastal and not too large (but larger than Te Kuiti!).

She joined Three Rivers Medical's predecessor Kaiti Medical Centre in 2000 and also works with the Gisborne Palliative Care team in the hospital and in the community. “Because my own father died of cancer when I was in medical school I had an early affinity with that aspect of medicine, and an understanding of chronic illness and loss, which moulded my career.”